Traits of highly intelligent people: I had a boyfriend who worked in a coffee shop, swore constantly, and had a genius level I.Q. There was nothing obvious about him that screamed high intelligence. In fact, it’s really very difficult to measure intelligence, which might be why there’s always some study or test to try to measure it.
Intelligence can mean different things to different people, but generally, it’s thought as having the ability to perceive information, having the capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, creativity, and possessing the ability to learn problem solve.
When you’re very intelligent, you’re thought of as having a big brain or being very smart, and people assume you must have been highly educated. We think people are highly intelligent if they can do difficult math problems in their head or create machines to save the world.
But actually, some of the characteristics of high intelligence aren’t generally associated with having a high intellect. Here are 8 signs of high intelligence you may not know about.
1. Mental illness
In the movie (which is based on a true story) A Beautiful Mind, the lead character, John Nash, is a brilliant mathematician dealing with schizophrenia. The link between mental illness and intelligence is high controversial, but some of the most gifted minds in history — like Edgar Allan Poe, Jackson Pollock, and Amy Winehouse — were all bipolar.
The specific reason for this link isn’t clear, but a study found that a certain protein associated with memory and curiosity in mice was also associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in humans. Another study suggested that the ability needed to figure out complex math equations and process information quickly may also put people at risk for mania.
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